
Forum �bersicht Suche Login Registrieren Forums-Blog Landkarte

M�rz
2019

Glover Quin Jersey

Rob Carr/Getty ImagesPhiladelphia Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola doesn't have a say in his team's personnel decisions Kendall Graveman Jersey , but he is optimistic that it will make one of the biggest splashes of the offseason."I think we'll land one of them [Bryce Harper or Manny Machado], but it's out of my hands," Nola said Tuesday, per theBucks County Courier Times' Tom Moore.Both Harper and Machado remain unsigned despite their decorated resumes.Philadelphia has gotten a firsthand look at Harper for years now, as he has spent his entire seven-year career with the National League East rival Washington Nationals. Prior to turning 26 in October, he had piled up a number of individual accolades: six All-Star selections, 2012 NL Rookie of the Year, 2015 NL MVP, 2015 NL Silver Slugger and 2018 Home Run Derby title.Harper hit .249/.393/.496 with 34 home runs, 34 doubles and 100 RBI in 2018. He overcame a slow start to the season by hitting .300 after the All-Star break.Meanwhile, Machado made a name for himself with the Baltimore Orioles. Through his first seven big-league seasons, he earned four All-Star selections and won a pair of Gold Gloves at third base.Machado hit .297/.367/.538 with 37 home runs, 35 doubles http://www.athleticsfanproshop.com/authentic-jose-canseco-jersey , three triples and 107 RBI between Baltimore and the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2018.Both Harper and Machado were expected to challenge Giancarlo Stanton's record $325 million contract this offseason. However, with less than one month until spring training, neither star has found a home.Philadelphia has been linked to both players throughout the offseason, especially once Phillies owner John Middleton made headlines earlier this offseason by tellingUSA TodaySports'Bob Nightengalethat his team was willing to spend big this winter as they look to snap a seven-year playoff drought."We're going into this expecting to spend money," Middleton said in November, per Nightengale. "And maybe even be a little bit stupid about it. We just prefer not to be completely stupid."MLB Network MLBNetworkHarper, Keuchel AND Kimbrel?!?! #MLBTonight Pc2GLerVtlTrue to Middleton's word, Philadelphia handed 32-year-old outfielder Andrew McCutchen athree-year, $50 million contractin December. The team continued to spend by signing reliever David Robertson to atwo-year, $23 million dealearlier this month.Jon Heymanof Fancred reported last week that the Phillies are in "excellent position" to sign one of the prized free agents, although signing both is "pretty unlikely."Neither Machado nor Harper have appeared to set a deadline for negotiations to this point. For now, Nola and the rest of the baseball world will have to wait to see where those stars wind up鈥攁nd if the Phillies are players in either sweepstakes. Elsa/Getty ImagesThe latest postseason clash between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees picked up where the last one left off in 2004.With Boston on top.Although the Red Sox barely eked out a 5-4 win over their longtime nemeses in Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Friday, the game somehow felt even closer than that.The early innings were a rout in favor of the home team. That had much to do with Chris Sale's triumphant return to power-pitching goodness on the run prevention side of things. On the other side http://www.athleticsfanproshop.com/authentic-jed-lowrie-jersey , J.D. Martinez provided an early exclamation mark with a three-run home run in the first inning.MLB MLBGood times never seemed so good! #ALDS 236dsZXhxyIn the later innings, however, the Yankees sucked as much life as they could out of the capacity crowd at Fenway Park. The trick was to exploitthe Red Sox's not-so-secret Achilles' heel: their bullpen.Boston relievers technically had a solid season, putting up a 3.74 ERA that ranked ninth in Major League Baseball. But the front office and manager Alex Cora never figured out the bridge to ace closer Craig Kimbrel. It really started to show in September, as Boston's pen slumped to a 4.84 ERA.Signs of progress were not immediately apparent after Cora lifted Sale with one out in the sixth inning.Ryan Brasier allowed two of his inherited runners to score. The Yankees then loaded the bases with nobody out in the seventh, ultimately settling for one run. Cora resorted to bringing in 2016 AL Cy Young Award winner Rick Porcello to begin the eighth and then Kimbrel for a four-out save. He got it but not before surrendering a solo blast to Aaron Judge.Throughout all the late-inning drama, the sheer evenness of these Red Sox and Yankees teams was as tangible as the spines on a porcupine. Game 1 certainly felt like a showdown between two teams that combined for 208 victories in the regular season.Still, the Red Soxdidwin to grab a 1-0 series lead. And couched in how they did it are real positives.Tim Bradbury/Getty ImagesStart with Sale, who became the first Red Sox starter to pitch into the sixth inning of a postseason game since John Lackey in Game 6 of the 2013 World Series.The big question coming into Friday was whether Sale would regain any of the fastball velocity he'd been missing after returning from a second bout withshoulder inflammation on Sept. 11. Previously, he'd averaged 95 mph on his fastball. He averaged92.7 mph afterward, including 90.2 mph in his final regular-season tuneup Sept. 26.Cora tried to quell unrest by pointing to Sale's mechanics, not his shoulder."I don't feel that's the reason," the first-year skipper told reporters. "We've been talking about it the whole time Tony Phillips Jersey , and we don't feel it's the shoulder. His mechanics were way off in the first outing, probably, they got better, then all of the sudden last one it wasn't there. But we don't feel it has anything to do with the shoulder."Evidently, Sale has fixed what had been ailing him.He sat at 94.6 mph with his four-seamer in Game 1, with a peak of 96.6 mph. That made it easier for him to catch Yankees hitters off-guard with his slider and changeup, which drew nine whiffs out of 49 total pitches.Sale isn't all the way back to the otherworldly dominance (1.97 ERA and 219 strikeouts in 146 innings) he displayed through his first 23 starts. But he nonetheless looked the part of a Game 1 starter. Should the Red Sox need one, that's a solid assurance he can also be an ace in Game 4 or Game 5.Meanwhile, the Red Sox offense operated in much the same way it did all season.It revolved around Martinez, Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts and Andrew Benintendi. They provided six of the team's eight hits, as well as four of its five runs batted in. Most of this happened in two-plus innings of exposure to J.A. Happ, who was the Yankees' de facto ace down the stretch.Though nowhere near as big a concern as the team's bullpen http://www.athleticsfanproshop.com/authentic-walt-weiss-jersey , the shallowness of Boston's lineup around its big four is a red flag. Especially opposite the Yankees lineup, which got contributions from all over en route to a record 267 homers in the regular season.It is some comfort, however, that Martinez, Betts, Bogaerts and Benintendi are all complete hitters who can hit good pitching. The Red Sox will be in good shape if they can keep throwing punches early articularly if it's in tandem with more good starting pitching, which the Red Sox stand to get if David Price and Porcello pitch to their best abilities in Games 2 and 3.Of course, the Yankees don't necessarily have to be impressed by any of this.For them, it's a moral victory that Boston's best starter could only muster 16 outs in Game 1. Their harsh exposure of the Red Sox's bullpen is yet another moral victory. From here, it may not be that difficult to ride their bats and bullpen to a series tie and beyond. In either event, the Red Sox and Yankees have taken the first step toward another October classic.Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.